Annette Lu files injunction over rejected nuclear poll

By Chris Wang / Staff reporter

Thu, Jan 23, 2014 - Page 3

Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) plans to file a provisional injunction over the government’s rejection of her proposed nuclear referendum in New Taipei City (新北市) in a bid to stop the fuel rods from being installed at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in the city’s Gongliao District (貢寮).

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled at the Taipei High Administrative Court today over the lawsuit Lu has filed against the Executive Yuan for rejecting her referendum proposal, which had been previously approved by New Taipei City’s Referendum Review Committee.

Lu told a press conference yesterday that the Executive Yuan’s rejection has failed to respect the tens of thousands of people who signed the petition.

The former vice president, who is among the aspirants for the Democratic Progressive Party’s candidacy in the Taipei mayoral election in November, has made the anti-nuclear issue one of the main themes of her election campaign.

Citing former Japanese prime minister Morihimo Hosokawa, who ran an anti-nuclear campaign in the Tokyo gubernatorial election, as her inspiration, Lu said she would continue with her efforts, noting that the wishes of the millions of residents in the evacuation zone around the nuclear power plant should be respected.

Lu also accused Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of flip-flopping on another referendum proposal Lu launched in Taipei, saying that Hau had shunned the responsibility for referring the proposal to the Ministry of the Interior, which subsequently determined that a nuclear referendum is a national issue that cannot be decided by a local referendum.